Muscle News
A Phase III sells for more than $1m; Ford con rms Bullitt special edition ’Stang for Australia.
The breaking of the $1million barrier for a road-going Australian muscle car at auction is expected to see a flood of GT-HO Falcons hit the classic car market in the coming months.
ATrack Red-coloured 1971 XY Falcon GT-HO Phase III sold for $1,030,000 at Lloyds Auctions in Queensland in late June. The previous record reported price for a Phase III was $683,650 for a sale in 2007. Top end Phase IIIs had been changing hands for around the $500,000 mark in the last few years, with little indication that the magical million mark – especially magical for the vendor – would be broken any time soon. But broken it was. Not bad for a motor car that sold for about $5000 in 1971.
Bill Freeman, head auctioneer at Lloyds Classic Car Auctions, con rmed that the price achieved at the auction was a rst for Australia.
“Now we have taken it into the seven digits we expect to be inundated by Phase III owners and buyers which is exciting for all classic car collectors and investors around Australia,” Mr Freeman said.
Intriguingly, the ‘million dollar baby’ was once owned by former Australian cricketer Jeff Thomson, a fact that Lloyds used to good effect in pre-event publicity. It’s difficult to believe a celebrity owner – at least one who hadn’t driven to victory at Bathurst – would have boosted this type of car’s desirability. It’s more likely that the connection to Aussie quick Thomo ensured the car’s impending sale came to the attention of more prospective owners via widespread TV news, print and social media coverage. That said, we can’t be sure of the anonymous new owner’s motives, perhaps he or she likes GTs and cricket.
As an aside, we can just imagine Thomo, with his trademark slingshot action, sending sixstitchers hurtling into Marshy’s gloves, before, at stumps, jumping into ‘Big Red’ and laying rubber as he left the Gabba’s carpark in the early 1980s.
The sale had AMC wondering what a Phase IIIs that competed in either the 1971 or ’72 Hardie-Ferodo 500 would fetch? More to the point, did providence that included a start in the Bathurst classic add to or reduce the value of the ultimately Aussie muscle car?
Those questions were only partially answered when the Baldwin Ford-entered Phase III driven by Damon Beck and Garry Rush at Bathurst in 1971 was sold at auction by Lloyds for $430,000 late last year. As we outlined in AMC #73 ‘Wild Horses’ cover story, this car survives today virtually as it raced on Mount Panorama on October 3, 1971. That it was re-shelled prior to Bathurst ’71 after striking a horse that had strayed onto Windsor Road on north-western Sydney’s outskirts as it was being run-in means the orange beast was not a matching numbers example of a race Phase III, the form that would bring top dollars.
At the other end of the age spectrum, a 2017 HSV GTS-R W1 sold recently for $250,000.
The highest selling Holden was a Torana A9X GMP&A hatchback which went for $500,000.
“This car was an exciting nd, it only has 14km on it and has been kept in a bricked-up garage for more than 30 years in near brand new condition,” said Mr Freeman. “This sale shows that the buyer interest in Ford and Holden classics is continuing to grow after Australia’s car manufacturing closed down.”